Tag Archives: Al Jazeera America

Family, Life

Fatherhood.

Leave a comment

12622518_10156519236660037_2347070880901757750_o

The middle week in January was a real roller coaster for me. On Wednesday, January 13, I found out the cable network where I’d been working for the past two years, Al Jazeera America, was shutting down in late-April.

That news was barely digested when, on Friday, my wife, Kiera, went into labor.

Siddhartha Reyes Swaminathan was born in the wee hours of Saturday, January 16, overshadowing any other event that took place early that week and more or less all of them before it (at least in my life).

His first few days have been intensely documented via several iPhone cameras and even a couple traditional ones. If you want to watch him as he grows, we took inspiration from friends and made him his own Instagram account, @sidsw4mi, you can follow him there.

Work stuff will sort its out, but I’m feeling totally consumed by this little guy right now—and have to imagine I will be for the foreseeable future.

Advertisement
Work

Watch Al Jazeera America

Leave a comment

AlJazAmI don’t normally shill for upstart cable networks—at least I never did for Current TV, MSNBC, or a newbie like Fusion—but you need to watch Al Jazeera America. For one, it has excellent, objective, news coverage with an international point of view and no punditry. Second, they now pay my bills.

After about nine months of working from home for Archaeology, I realized that I had a frighteningly small social circle on the west coast. My isolation drove me to answer an ad forwarded via a friend of my fiancee. Al Jazeera America—or as my friend called it, “the journalism rapture,” for the number of people it was hiring in 2013—was looking for a digital producer for its acclaimed current affairs show “Fault Lines.”

I got the job, and I’m excited to work with what seems like a dedicated team of producers to cover some of the most important issues in the world. I’ll be helping to run the show’s website and build web content to augment and supplement the show’s episodes. It’s a very exciting time out here on the left coast!

(Also, just to make sure all my bases are covered: Everything on this blog constitutes my personal views and not those of any place where I currently work or a place where I have worked.)